Injury Breaks

No need to point the finger. All teams do it. The scenario is this. There's a stop in play. A scrum or a lineout is about to occur. A team is feeling the pinch on defence. They need a breather. What happens. A forward goes down on bended knee and play is held up while he is attended to by medical staff. Water bottles are passed around and tactics are discussed.

Of course this scenario doesn't play out all the time. Genuine injury breaks occur frequently. Rugby, after all, is a physical game. Moreover, how does a referee determine whether an injury is genuine or not. The obvious answer is he can't.

So I contend that there should be no injury breaks. If a player goes down, play continues. If a scrum needs to be set and a prop is down, then a replacement prop comes on and the injured prop gets checked out on the touchline. It doesn't count as a replacement much like a blood replacement. The only time an injury break should occur is when a player is concussed or knocked out or there is the risk of a neck injury or something similar.

Is this being too harsh or do we need to stamp out these breather 'injury' breaks?

It's the same in any pro sport - there will always be ways of playing the clock and getting info from the coach to the team. Trouble is, it's becoming more and more obvious in rugby. In F1 they've stopped the chatter over the radio with coded messages on where to go faster and about time too.

Sorting a solution is more difficult but I like Kia's idea. Doesn't solve it, but would probably make most teams think twice, especially if their "back-up" is considerably worse a player than the "injured" player.

With the exception of a scrum and in case of serious injury then play does continue doesn't it? You often see physios on the pitch attending injured players as play goes on.

That's in open play, bedfordwelsh. A ref can stop play before it goes dead if he's concerned about a player's safety like a heavily concussed player. But if a player goes down in open play, unlike football, the ball doesn't need to go dead for that player to receive medical attention on the field. However, play continues.

What I suggest is taking it further. When the ball goes dead, play is held up if a player is deemed to be injured. I'm saying play should continue and if it's a genuine injury then he should be allowed a time limit and then it counts as a replacement if he doesn't return.

I remember back in 1995 when subs were not allowed.

The SH sides were masters of guys getting hit by imaginary bullets similar to Tom Williams ex. blood.

I recall little James Small feigning an injury to get subbed during the RWC final. It was hilarious

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:That's in open play, bedfordwelsh. A ref can stop play before it goes dead if he's concerned about a player's safety like a heavily concussed player. But if a player goes down in open play, unlike football, the ball doesn't need to go dead for that player to receive medical attention on the field. However, play continues.

What I suggest is taking it further. When the ball goes dead, play is held up if a player is deemed to be injured. I'm saying play should continue and if it's a genuine injury then he should be allowed a time limit and then it counts as a replacement if he doesn't return.

Fair one but am sure I have seen line outs continue after ball gone dead etc if the ref deems the player injured is not to badly injured or directly involved with a line out.

I hate the gamesmanship more, when forwards stop to tie their shoelaces when setting up the scrum and so on, wasting time on the clock.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:No need to point the finger. All teams do it. The scenario is this. There's a stop in play. A scrum or a lineout is about to occur. A team is feeling the pinch on defence. They need a breather. What happens. A forward goes down on bended knee and play is held up while he is attended to by medical staff. Water bottles are passed around and tactics are discussed.

Of course this scenario doesn't play out all the time. Genuine injury breaks occur frequently. Rugby, after all, is a physical game. Moreover, how does a referee determine whether an injury is genuine or not. The obvious answer is he can't.

So I contend that there should be no injury breaks. If a player goes down, play continues. If a scrum needs to be set and a prop is down, then a replacement prop comes on and the injured prop gets checked out on the touchline. It doesn't count as a replacement much like a blood replacement. The only time an injury break should occur is when a player is concussed or knocked out or there is the risk of a neck injury or something similar.

Is this being too harsh or do we need to stamp out these breather 'injury' breaks?

If this system was in place any sensible team would play a couple of extra back row forwards as props. They would be 'injured' every time there was a scrum and leave to be checked. Once the scrum was over they would come back on.

Fair point. Is it not compulsory though to have two props and a hooker as replacements?